Tips and tricks: User profiles

This week I've explained a number of little things about the way the Guardian Technology website works to help you get a little more out - first how our site's organised, then some details on our RSS feeds.

Today I'm going to explain a couple of things that are direct benefits of registering to leave comments on the site.

In order to comment on any article on the Guardian website - including some news stories, opinion pieces and all of our blog posts - you have to register. It's a bummer, in many ways, but it does help weed out the trolls a little.

One added benefit, however, is that every commenter gets their own user profile page at theguardian.com/users/username (here's mine, for example. We're planning on adding extra functions to user profiles over time, but what exactly can you do with it right now?

Well, first of all it keeps all of your comments in one place. That's great if you can't remember exactly what you said, or where you said it. Just click on the 'show all comments' - or go straight to theguardian.com/users/username/comments

This can be useful for you, but also handy to check other people's comments. Suspect somebody's a troll? Check their most recent comments to see if they just spend their days trying to wind people up across the site. Or perhaps they've got a serious thing for complaining about one pet hate, and you don't need to bother responding. Whatever, you can make a more informed choice about how you comment and talk with other users.

Also on the user profile page you can see clippings. This is an internal bookmarking service that we've got for the Guardian, and one we're planning on expanding over time. Just press the little pink scissors icon visible on the right hand side of any article to keep a copy on file. You can even build your own special pages pulling together articles from across the site - over on our Inside Guardian blog earlier this year, my colleague Sean Clarke explained how it works.

Oh, and you get an avatar too. Right now you can't upload pictures to your profile, but you can at least choose a colour for your Cluedo-esque virtual representative on Guardian.co.uk.

There's more to come in this area - and suggestions are always welcome.